Supervention
by Mercedes no Inuarai
Summary: This fic takes place during one of those drifting points during the first half of the series where Heero and Duo are supposedly roommates in school together. [shounen ai, multiple flashbacks, 21]


Title: Supervention   
Author: Jen De Salme a.k.a. Mercedes  
Pairings: 2+1   
Rating: PG   
Warnings: Mixed flashbacks, shounen ai, slight citrus... maybe rating a Sweet Tart   
Spoilers: None   
Notes: This fic takes place during one of those drifting points during the first half of the series where Heero and Duo are supposedly roommates in school together. It's inspired by something that happened to me. Only, I'm not Heero. ^.~   
Feedback: Yes, please! templewing@hotmail.com   
Disclaimers: They're not mine, I'm just borrowing them. Definition of the title at the end of the fic.   
-=+=- 

The door to room 305 opened soundlessly and a dark form slipped into the larger than usual double. Light from the street lamps outside filtered in through the windows, leaving eerie shadows across the floor and furniture. 

Heero shut the door and leaned back against it wearily, allowing an inaudible sigh to escape past his lips. The room was dark and, since it was still early in the evening, it was likely that his jubilant roommate was still out with friends. A double blessing. The full force of Duo Maxwell's personality was something he most assuredly did not feel up to competing with. Despite Duo's proclamation that his fellow pilot was inhuman, Heero still had limits, and he had just reached them. 

With a soft grunt, the gundam pilot pushed himself away from the door's solid support and staggered over to his side of the room. Not bothering to turn on the lights, he quickly stripped out of the pretentious school uniform down to his boxers. Grabbing up his bath accessories and a towel, he shuffled back out of the room to the communal showers at the end of the hall. 

As the heat of the near boiling water soothed tired muscles, Heero replayed the mission in his mind. It was supposed to be a quick in and out. Destroy the mobile suit transports and their cargo and get out of there before OZ troops could effectively retaliate. Only, he'd miscalculated the defensive capabilities of space port itself. The battle had lasted much longer than expected and Wing took enough damage to keep it grounded for at least a few days while Heero repaired it. In the end, he'd completed his mission and gotten out of there, but not without his own share of bruises and strained muscles. At least nothing was broken this time. 

A part of him wanted to soak in the hot water a little longer. However, ingrained habits had him out of the shower as soon as he was finished cleaning up. After drying off his body, he slipped into the boxers, and draped the towel around his neck to catch the drips from his still wet hair. 

He opened the door to his room, just enough for him to slide silently inside, more out of habit than any conscious thought. This time the glow of Duo's desk lamp softened the harsh shadows created by the lights outside their room. The young man himself lay on his stomach on his bed, a spiral bound notebook open across the pillow in front of him. He was propping his head up with one hand; the other held a pen which he was absently chewing the cap off of. 

After watching his roommate gnaw on the innocent plastic for a few more seconds, Heero closed the door and returned to his side of the room. He used his towel to vigorously rub his hair in an attempt to dry it. Seeing as the material was already too damp to be of any use, he gave up and draped it over the bed post to let it air dry. 

Straightening, he closed his eyes and began to roll his shoulders in an attempt to work out the stiffness. The hot water of the shower had helped some, but it was only temporary relief. As he worked the kinks out of each muscle, he emptied his mind. Duo had begun humming to himself. It was a soft sound and barely disturbed the silence of the room. Heero glanced at Duo out of the corner of his eye and memories drifted across the quiet of his mind.   
---------- 

It had been a rough battle. Both gundams and their pilots had taken a beating, but they had been the victors this time. Now, hours later, Wing and Deathscythe were kneeling in a thickly forested area miles from the target of the attack. Heero sat in his gundam's cockpit, eyes fixed on the wireframe image of the mobile suit on the monitor in beside him. Damaged areas flashed red and he frowned as he calculated what would be needed to repair them. The open hatch in front of him let in the night sounds of the woods around him. 

"Hey, Heero! You alive up there, buddy?" 

It also allowed other noises to disturb him. Without taking his eyes from the screen next to him, he replied shortly, "I'm fine." 

Silence followed and Heero could only hope that was the end of Duo's questions for the evening. A few moments later, the clang of hard-soled boots on the metal of the open hatch proved otherwise. Heero stifled a sigh and tore his eyes away from the screen to glare at the other pilot. Duo smirked in return and advanced a few steps to the cockpit and leaned in slightly. 

"So, will Wing live, doc?" His eyes scanned over the diagram Heero had been examining. "Looks like you have a cracked energy conduit in the right arm. Gonna have trouble powering up that beam saber of yours until you get that fixed." 

"What do you want, Duo?" Heero's frown deepened slightly. He knew how to take care of his own gundam, he certainly didn't need advice on fixing it. 

Duo's smirk broadened to a grin that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Just wanted to let you know that I have a few spare parts if you need them. After all, it wouldn't do to have you 'borrowing' them from my gundam, again." 

Heero snorted. "Is that all?" He turned back to the monitor and tapped a few keys. A series of graphs appeared and he refocused his attention, blocking out the feeling of Duo's gaze on him.   
----------- 

A muscle spasming in his back snapped Heero back to the present. A pained breath hissed through clenched teeth before he could stop it. He straightened slowly from the leg stretch he'd been in and rubbed his lower back carefully. 

"Heero, you okay?" 

He looked over at the other side of the room and met Duo's concerned gaze. 

"It's nothing." Heero twisted slightly in attempt to work the muscle out again and another hiss escaped as it cramped painfully. 

"Like hell it's nothing." The creak of bedsprings was the only warning he had before Duo was at his side. Just as swiftly, Heero found himself being gently pushed into a sitting position on the other youth's bed. Duo sat down beside him and placed his hands on Heero's bare shoulders. Heero frowned at him and opened his mouth to protest when Duo grinned and wagged a finger at him. 

"Uh-uh, you sit quiet and let Doc Duo do his thing, all right? Now turn." Heero did as he was bade and sat facing the end of the bed, legs folded lotus style in front of him. Duo's callused hands began working at the knotted muscles in his shoulders. 

"God, you are tense! Rough mission, huh? Well, don't worry, this will help a lot more than those damn stretches of yours. Heck, you probably made it worse by doing them!" As he spoke, he ground the knuckles of one hand in between Heero's shoulder blades. "Actually, I'm surprised you're letting me do this after all the issues you have with people touching you." 

Heero tensed at that. Was Duo doing this because he wanted to touch him? Duo had assured Heero that he no longer had feelings like that towards him, but Heero didn't quite believe him. Either way, they didn't discuss the... incident... but what if Duo had decided to try his luck again? He started to pull away from Duo when the young man smacked his shoulder. 

"Stop that, you're cramped up enough as it is. Just relax." Heero hesitated, then grunted a noncommittal reply and turned back around. 

There was silence between them as Duo continued to work at his stiff back. The minutes ticked by until Duo released a heavy sigh. Heero felt the breath brush against his bare back like a warm breeze. 

"Look, I'm not going to jump your bones or anything, so could you please just relax and trust me?" Duo's voice was low and held a note of hurt, Heero's assumed at his own show of distrust. He released a quiet sigh of his own and nodded, forcing his muscles to relax as much as he could. 

"You know that's one of your problems, Heero. You just don't trust anyone! Sure that's a useful trait in terrorists and assassins, but every once in a while you just have to show a little faith." Duo had obviously put aside his hurt just as quickly as it had come. Heero let him ramble and closed his eyes. The massage did feel good and, despite the occasional twinges of pain as Duo ground at a particularly hard knot, it was relaxing him. He let his mind drift again and Duo's voice became a low murmuring that lulled him into a light half-doze.   
------------ 

A moment of silence passed before he heard Duo sigh. 

"Actually, I've been thinking lately. You know we're both likely to die during this war. Life is short anyway, but in our case especially. I mean, there's so much we'll never get to do, get to feel, just because of who we are and what we do." 

"Your point?" Annoyance laced Heero's voice. He was tired, sore, and he just wanted to finish up the damage assessment so that he could go back to the dorm and collapse on his bed. All this talk was delaying his reaching that goal. 

"It's just that..." Duo hesitated and Heero heard him mutter something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, "Hell, life was getting dull anyway..." 

Suddenly, Duo's hands were clamped over his forearms, pressing them into the arms of the chair. Heero turned his head to ask what Duo thought he was doing when his attempt was silenced by Duo's lips pressed against his. 

He sat in shock, muscles tense with surprise. This only lasted a few seconds, for Heero's scattered wits soon returned and he hooked Duo's ankle with one foot, pulling the other young man off balance. Duo released Heero's arms and pulled away as he was forced to either catch his balance or fall to the floor. Heero rose and in several swift movements forced him there anyway. One knee across Duo's chest held the pilot to the floor, half in and half out of the cockpit. The heel of his palm was only centimeters from Duo's throat. At the last second Heero had halted what would have been a crushing blow to the young man's windpipe.   
------------ 

It wasn't until nearly a week later that Heero had managed to pry anything more out of Duo concerning the kiss. Despite Duo's casual attitude when the incident had occurred, Heero had noticed he was taking almost extreme measures to avoid him. Heero finally cornered him in the woods where they'd hidden their gundams. He'd asked Duo again, what he had asked him that night. 

"Why, Duo? Why did you kiss me?" 

"I told you already, I--" 

"Not good enough." 

A heavy sigh. "You're not ugly, Heero." 

Dark eyes avoiding his, staring at the ground, the trees, anything except Heero. "And for all that you act like a cold, hardened killer, you have a kind heart." 

Those same dark eyes, the blue-violet of twilight, finally meeting his. "I'm... attracted to you, Heero... But don't worry, I know when not to push, and I can see you're not interested." 

Heero had blinked at him in mild confusion as Duo turned and continued walking to his gundam. He'd gone back to the dorms after the confrontation and when Duo had returned later that evening, he'd acted like it had never happened. It had been business as usual between them since then. 

Duo had been right, of course. Heero felt nothing for his fellow pilot beyond comradeship, and sometimes barely that. 

Although, while he lay in bed at night, hovering between the world of waking and the land of dreams, a breath of -- something -- would whisper at his thoughts, disappearing when he slipped into the unconsciousness of sleep.   
------------- 

The two held their positions, both calming quickened heartbeats and instinctual reactions. In that space of calm, Heero glanced down and noticed the humming blade of a thermal knife only a breath away from his stomach. The tenseness of Duo's hand around the hilt was a testament to just how close Heero had come to being gutted. 

Duo broke the silence first. "Well... that was exciting." 

"Exciting." Heero's voice was seemingly calm, deadpan as he processed what had just occurred. He pulled back his hand as Duo withdrew his knife, switching it off. The latter made a move to rise, but Heero pressed him back to the floor with the knee that was still pressed against Duo's chest. 

"What, Heero?" The dark-clad young man affected an exasperated expression as he looked up at his captor. "First you want me out, now you won't let me up, which is it?" 

Heero frowned, anger and confusion warring in his mind as he stared down at Duo. He hadn't realized how long he'd been staring in silence until Duo cleared his throat. 

"Well? We do have classes tomorrow, ya know, and while I could care less what the teachers thought of me, I'm sure you'd rather--" He was cut off by the hand Heero clamped over his mouth. 

"Shut up." When Duo rolled his eyes and nodded, he removed his hand. He glared for a moment later before speaking again. 

"Why did you do that?" 

"Do what?" 

Heero's frown deepened. "Why did you kiss me?" 

Duo's eyes lit up and his mouth stretched into a lopsided grin. "Oh, THAT!" He shrugged as best he could from his prone position. "I felt like it." 

Heero blinked as confusion overrode anger. "You... felt like it." 

"Yep!" His grin turned into a grimace as he squirmed beneath Heero. "Hey, do you think you could get off me, pal? You're no lightweight, you know." 

Heero complied and stood, taking a step back so that Duo could lever himself to his feet. Deathscythe's pilot brushed himself off and slid the knife into the pocket of his aviator pants. He grinned at Heero and walked to the edge of the cockpit hatch. 

"Sometimes you just have to take a chance and act on your feelings. If nothing else, Heero, it makes life a hell of a lot more interesting." Without looking back, he leaped off the hatch. Heero stood within the entryway of the cockpit for a moment as he listened to the clang of Duo's boots as he climbed down off of Wing. The silence that followed left a confused and slightly surprised Heero standing on his gundam and staring into the night.   
------------- 

As he awoke from his light doze, Heero realized that he had no idea how long the two of them had been sitting there. He'd long since relaxed, his muscles loose and warm from the massage, but Duo continued to gently knead his back and side. During the span of time that Heero had been drifting, Duo had fallen silent. He kept his eyes closed, listening to the sound of their breathing as he cleared his mind of the memories. 

He reached full awareness when Duo's fingers brushed over his sides again and he noticed an odd tingling. It was like nothing he'd felt before and it came in spurts as Duo's hands moved innocently over his skin. The tingling started on his tongue and the roof of his mouth, where it traveled down to become a brief tightness in his chest and settled as a strange twisting low in his gut. It wasn't... unpleasant, but it made him want to act on it... made him want to do something... 

"Duo?" Heero was surprised by how soft his voice was; by it's slightly ragged edge, caused by the strange tingling on his tongue. Despite this, it seemed loud in the wake of the peaceful silence it had broken. 

"Hmm?" Duo's hands brushed over his sides again, tickling against the bare skin. 

Heero turned slowly, breaking the contact. He uncurled his legs and put his feet on the floor. Opening his eyes, finally, he turned his head to look at Duo. 

It appeared that the other pilot had been drifting as well, for his eyes were half closed, his expression and posture that of complete relaxation. He had one leg folded in front of him since he sat sideways facing the foot of the bed and Heero. The other leg dangled over the side, his bare foot brushing the floor. He tilted his head slightly to the side as he waited for Heero to continue. 

There was a small hitch in Heero's breath as the strange sensations quietly urged him to do -- something. Anything. 

"...Act on your feelings..." Duo's words from the memory whispered unheeded past Heero's lips. 

Duo's expression started towards confusion. "Heero, what--!" 

Whatever Duo was going to ask him, it was cut short when Heero leaned over and brushed his parted lips over Duo's. It was another new sensation for Heero, the feeling of his own dry lips touching Duo's, their matched breath warming and cooling his mouth at the same time. It only lasted a brief moment, however, before Heero pulled away. 

"Thank you." Heero's voice was still soft, though the edge was gone. The urge of the feelings seemed to by satisfied with his action and had begun to fade away. Though not entirely sure what he was thanking Duo for, Heero stood and walked over to his bed. He pulled back the covers and sat down before looking back over at his roommate. 

Duo was still sitting in the same position, though his mouth and eyes were wide with surprise. As if waking, he shook his head and blinked repeatedly before looking over at Heero. 

"What--what was that for?" The question was almost whispered, his confusion made audible. 

Heero tilted his head slightly as the answer floated to the surface of his mind. "I felt like it." With that, he laid down on his side, facing away from Duo. If he'd replied to Heero's simple statement, Heero didn't hear him. The exhaustion he'd felt before the back rub finally caught up with him and he was asleep only moments after pulling his blankets over his shoulders. 

That night, he dreamed of murmured questions, whispered answers, and a soft tuneless humming that drifted beneath it all.   
*** 

Post-Notes: Concept for the thermal knife courtesy of Reku Fuyunagi's Gundam Wing manga, "Ground Zero". 

supervene [vi], to come or happen as something additional or unexpected. -- [n] supervention 


End file.
